Stow-away beds, seats and tables are common features in recreational vehicles where living space is limited. Stow-away beds, seats and tables are designed to be quickly and conveniently stored to increase living space when not in use. The present invention seeks to provide an improved stow-away bed, seat, table or similar structure for recreational vehicles.
The stow-away bed embodying the teachings of the present invention includes a flat rectangular deck pivotally mounted between opposed vehicle end walls by a pair of parallel swing arms. The parallel swing arms allow the bed deck to remain in a horizontal position as the deck is manually swung between the storage and sleep positions. The stow-away bed is pivotally mounted between opposed vehicle end walls for movement between a storage position where the bed deck is suspended adjacent the vehicle ceiling and a sleep position where the bed deck is suspended from the vehicle ceiling. In one embodiment of this invention, a pair of elastic cords connect the bed deck to the vehicle side wall. The elastic cords pull the bed deck toward the vehicle sidewall and help hold the bed deck in the sleep position. In another embodiment, a chain drive and piston prop are incorporated to assist in moving the bed between the storage and sleep positions.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a simple stow-away bed design that is simple to operate and economical to produce. The bed uses a simple parallel swing arm design, which is easy to manually operate and maintain. Furthermore, the present invention can readily be configured as a bed, seat or table. These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.